Motoring Memories: The Morris Minor/Morris 1000

The Morris Minor/Morris 1000 built from 1948 to 1971 was one of Britain's most popular cars. The name came from an earlier overhead cam engined Minor produced from 1929 to 1932.

The Minor was designed by brilliant engineer Alec Issigonis (knighted to become Sir Alec in 1969), who would later revolutionize car design with his trend-setting cross-engine, front-drive BMC Mini.

Issigonis came to England from his native Turkey in the early 1920s at age 17. He received a mechanical engineering diploma from Battersea Polytechnic, worked for several car companies, and by the end of the Second World War had become chief designer at Morris.

Small cars were his special interest, and the Minor originated as a small car called the Mosquito that he developed during the Second World War. By 1945 a prototype had been built.

But Issigonis decided it was too narrow, so in his practical way he had the body split longitudinally, pulled the two halves apart and added 102 mm (4 in.) in the middle. It now looked "right," and became the shape of the production Morris Minor. Bumpers had already been ordered so rather than go the expense of new bumpers the existing one was cut and half and the gap filled in with a piece of painted sheet steel. This two-piece bumper was replaced in 1950.

The Minor was introduced at London’s 1948 Earls Court Motor Show and began arriving in North America in 1949. It had such advanced features as unit construction and torsion bar independent front suspension, at a time when neither unibody nor torsion bars had found wide acceptance by the motor industry. Rack and pinion steering gave the Minor excellent steering characteristics, and roadholding and handling were superior for an economy car of the day.

Issigonis had planned to develop a new side-valve, horizontally-opposed (flat) four cylinder engine but internal company resistance couldn't be overcome. Instead it got the 27.5 horsepower, 918 cc (56 cu in.) Morris Eight side-valve inline four dating back to 1935. Power went to the rear wheels through a floor-shift, four-speed manual transmission.

The new 1949 Minor, a replacement for the pre-war designed Eight, came in two-door sedan and convertible versions. Except for its engine it was more modern than the Eight in every way.

The Minor was somewhat bulbous, though pleasantly styling. One rather homely feature was tiny headlamps tucked down low in the grille. Fitting larger lights on top of the fenders in 1951 vastly improved the Minor's appearance.

The Minor was quite small with a wheelbase of only 2,184 mm (86 in.) and over-all length of 3,759 mm (148 in.). It weighed some 680 kg (1,500 lb) and had 5.00 x 14-inch tires.

Mechanix Illustrated’s Tom McCahill (1/52) tested a Minor and reported zero to 96 km/h (60 mph) of 39.2 seconds and top speed of 103 to 105 km/h (64 to 65 mph). This compared closely with Volkswagen's zero to 96 (60) in 37.2 seconds and top speed of 106 km/h (66 mph) (R&T 12/52).

The Minor received detail improvements along the way. A four-door sedan was added in 1951 along with the aforementioned headlight change.

For 1952 the Nuffield Group's (Morris, et al.) merged with Austin to form the British Motor Corp., making the BMC A-series overhead valve 803 cc (49 cu in.) engine available for the Minor. It developed 30 horsepower but Road & Track (10/54) reported an agonizingly slow zero to 96 km/h (60 mph) time of 52.5 seconds and top speed of only 101 km/h (62.7 mph). It was almost unprecedented for a new engine to produce a slower car!

In 1954 the stylish Traveller station wagon was added. In 1955 it got a new horizontal bar grille and in '57 a one-piece curved windshield. As the decade progressed Morris sales fell further and further behind Volkswagen, particularly in North America.

To help boost sales the 1957 Minor was fitted with a larger revised BMC A-series 948 cc (57.8 cu in.), 37-horsepower four, becoming the Morris 1000. Road & Track (8/57) recorded an improved zero to 96 (60) time of 31.2 seconds and top speed of 118 km/h (73.2 mph).

Succeeding models received more improvements, most significantly the larger 1,098 cc (67 cu in.), 48 horsepower engine for 1963. Production finally ceased in 1971 after a very respectable 24-year model run of 1.6 million Minors, the first British car to exceed a million.

Although more famous for the cross-engine, front-drive Austin/Morris Mini which set the pattern for many of today’s front drivers, Alec Issigonis always called the Morris Minor his favourite design. He died in 1988 at age 81.